All Fired Up
All Fired Up Dwarfing even the detonation of a volcano, an explosion sounded at the entrance to the Muspelheim Guild Hall, swarming debris every which way. Clearly, the many twists and turns the guild had prepared in the case of an intrusion had been of little use, if any at all. Standing erect in the broken doorway was Jiretto Ekuseru; a chilled breeze escaped his mouth, the scorching hot temperatures supplied by the surrounding magma being akin to a faint tickle on his skin. He looked about the red and black turf, glaring into the abyss, awaiting the arrival of a challenger. Suddenly, an arrow flew towards Jiretto from above. Hearing the arrow soar through the air en route to his location, Jiretto countered with his most formidable weapon of all --that of patience. By his command, the wind around him fluctuated, causing an unforeseeable ripple that interlaced the trajectory of the projectile, paving it off course, and forcing it to the ground harmlessly. Another chilled breath leaving his mouth, Jiretto called out into the dark room, "show yourself, coward." A woman came down, connected to spider webs. "One can't be too careful." Two men jumped at Jiretto from behind, each slashing at him with swords. Without moving to look behind him, Jiretto stood his ground, and caused the surrounding air to yet again become his partner. Pressurizing it into a solid wind barrier, the two perpetrators at his flank found their blades split in half, and a gruesome force attack them from above within the very same instance, that would have undoubtedly plastered them to the ground and thereafter proceed into smashing them into pancakes. He eyed the woman next, scratching the stubble at his chin. "Don't waste my time. I've come for your master." "You'll never take our master." She knocked another arrow. Firing it with extreme accuracy and speed towards Jiretto. "Ultimate Impact Arrow!" Repeating the previous, as the warriors from his rear fell to the ground, flattened as they were, Jiretto summoned another invisible air current to dismantle the arrow; however, this time around, he caused it to instead repel the arrow at an even swifter speed back in the direction it came from, aiming to pierce through the spider-woman in one fell swoop. "Jacqueline!" called out one of the men on the ground. He managed to get up, but he wasn't fast enough. Suddenly the arrow just bounced off of her. "You should be more careful Jacqueline," said a man in a hood. "We'll handle him," said a man in sunglasses. With another failed attack, the battle had grown redundant. However yet, Jiretto felt a vibration within the currents of the wind that had not been summoned by him, a clear interpretation of Wind Magic. Heaving open the two sides of his lips, he started to inhale the constraints of the aforementioned from a distance, empowering his abilities to another level. With a clear boost in his strength, he sought to take advantage of his superior speed to catch his opponents off-guard; appearing behind them faster than they could have perceived him, he released an enormous whirlwind through his mouth, in the form of a violent tornado, that ripped to shreds whatever it touched. With such a large blast radius, it would have caught even the dangling Jacqueline within the crossfire, and hopefully, at long last, force the master of the guild to come out of hiding. "Where's he go?" asked Nether. "I don't know," answered Watcher. "I can't see his heat signature." They turned around just in time to see Jiretto's spell, and were barely able to protect themselves from the attack. They flew backwards, and landed hard on the ground. With the three on the ground, Jiretto took advantage of the situation immediately, so as not to allow them with enough time to recover. In a fraction of a second, ice appeared from his feet and spread out across the volcanic field, turning all it touched into a still, crystalline picture. As it neared the members of the Muspelheim guild swiftly, it would have frozen them solid --even despite their great affinity towards fire; this was likely due to Jiretto's powers having been empowered by his earlier meal-- and kept them behind a very durable ice wall. They would have been frozen in time; though very much alive, they would have been rendered immobile. With the floor turned into an iceskating ring, Jiretto kept his senses sharp, awaiting the next threat to emerge suddenly. Suddenly, the air turned hot again. The ice didn't just melt, it turned to mist. A shirtless blonde man entered the room. "Master Surtr!" "Stay back my children. I'll handle him." His body ignited in flames, transforming him into a giant beast on fire. He punched the ground, and magma erupted from the ground under Jiretto. The grumble beneath his feet was all Jiretto needed in order to foresee an incoming attack. Thankfully, his speed had been amplified to a level that would have allowed the Dragon Slayer to escape the geyser of lava that sought to devour him. He appeared some place safe afterward, and his cold glare fell upon Surtr, whom he seemingly had managed to lure out at long last. "You have come at long last, though at the cost of your so-called 'children'. It's flattering, really, that you'd show up so suddenly playing the role of their savior, when in reality, they are in such a miserable state due to your own cowardice," Jiretto said, welcoming the Muspelheim master. "Assuming you'd like to avoid the same misery that befell your men, I'll spare you under one condition: tell me of your alliance with the city-state of 'Othrys'. I'd like to know all about it, including how to get there." "Pfft," scoffed Surtr. "I don't know which one is stupider. The fact that you think I would knowingly betray an ally, or that you think that I know anything about Othrys. I've never even met their king before. He used one of his messengers. No one knows anything about that nation. I only work with them because of the supplies they give me for my experiments. Now do you want to fight, or just keep running your mouth?" "Suit yourself." Jiretto had already begun to analyze Surtr's fighting style. He employed a breed of Fire Magic, that much was certain --the whole guild did, for that matter. However, his was on another separate scale than their own, as evident by the fact that he had managed to melt the sleeted streets Jiretto had constructed beforehand; it was a praiseworthy feat, no matter how thin they may have been. Still, a plan came to mind. Within Jiretto, there was a lacrima constantly supplying his being with air; it was how he was able to employ Sky Dragon Slayer Magic in the first place, and naturally, it would allow him to breathe even under water, where air was scarce --however, the same could not be said for his opponent. Indeed, as a wielder of some form of Fire Magic, he would especially rely on oxygen to form the basis of his attacks. By negating that, Jiretto would have undoubtedly sealed a victory. And so, he did just that. With the use of his Sky Dragon Slayer Magic, Jiretto began to deprive the entire room of its oxygen, something that would have effected not only Surtr, but all of those guild members that had been sprawled out across the ground. If Surtr did not scream for mercy soon, he would find that it was his pride that had led to the downfall of his comrades. The flames on Surtr's body began to die down, but suddenly they flared up again. Nether had been supplying the room oxygen as he hadn't been defeated yet, unbeknownst to Jiretto. He began to walk towards Jiretto, unsheathing his zanbatom igniting it in flames as well. "No one steps into Muspelheim and lives!" He sliced his sword through the air, generating a huge torrent of flames aimed towards Jiretto. Walking against any opponent was quite foolish, was it not? Especially granted Jiretto's already enhanced attributes; walking to him was more like crawling, in that it was so very slow that to evade the incoming attack, all the Dragon Slayer really had to do was open his shoulder to the opposite side, allowing the flaming sword to cut through air; air, which Jiretto had not created. Under normal circumstances, he would have perhaps cracked a grin; but this time, he was almost... confused. Yet again did he consume the air, thereby granting him even greater power. At this point, it seemed as though everything else were moving in slow motion; if he was untraceable before, then he was certainly impossible to keep track of now. Moving with astonishing speed, he appeared behind Surtr --who was still in the act of swinging his sword completely through-- and with one swift attack, sought to knock him out with a gruesome punch to the head. The punch made contact, and Surtr flew away, but he had also increased the flames around him, burning his fist if he couldn't protect it. Surtr hit a wall, and was knocked unconscious. After the attack, Jiretto's hand was scorched by Surtr's flame. Without grimacing in pain, Jiretto blew off the flames with a chilled breath; though he did not show it, it was quite evident that some damage had been dealt. Jiretto turned to Nether, who was the only one left of Muspelheim's forces, yet still in a state where he was on the brink of exhaustion from his earlier defeat. "I suppose you don't know anything either? Well, in that case, there won't be anymore miracles around here. I've just about had it." Flinging forth at the same astonishing speed, Jiretto looked to sweep through Nether for the finishing blow. "But I do know something!" Nether managed to say before Jiretto's attack made contact. There was a long silence after Nether was brought down. Jiretto looked around the guild he had essentially destroyed, then at the long list of people he had defeated. Crafting gauntlets of ice, he proceeded to place them around Nether's wrists and ankles, so as to prohibit his movements in case he ever became conscious again. "You'll be coming with me," Jiretto said aloud, to the fallen Nether, "if you truly do know something, then you may ultimately be of some use." To leave his mark upon the guild and its members, Jiretto left it all covered in a weak layer of ice. The people, though they would remain alive within the layers of ice, could only be revived had the ice somehow been dealt with, much like a certain village in the past. Departing from the guild, he had taken Nether along with him. And so began his hunt for Othrys. Fin